ELLEN C. CHAHEY PHOTO

SIGNS OF COMMITMENT – Lynette Helms of Barnstable Village heads a real estate company, and she and her colleagues share a commitment to public service. They support Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod, of which Helms has recently become president, and several food pantries.

Realtor is new president of Cape’s Habitat for Humanity

The Goss family of Barnstable Village, who once owned and printed the Patriot, might feel proud of the four-generation family who now inhabit a home on Pine Lane, built in about 1850, where the Gosses once lived. One of the residents, Lynette Helms, has just become president of the Cape’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

In fact, Helms was preparing for her first meeting as chair of the board just hours after she spoke with the newspaper. She said that Habitat was the “big” choice of charities among the staff of her agency, Real Estate Associates. “That’s how I got involved” with Habitat about six years ago, she said, and to date she and her colleagues have raised about $60,000 in that time for Habitat just by donating a few dollars from commissions and from the agency’s profits for each sale.

Helms said that she likes Habitat’s philosophy of “a hand up, not a handout.” She said that Habitat requires at least 250 hours of “sweat equity” from a family to qualify for one of their homes, and teaches money management and home maintenance. There are about 75 Habitat for Humanity houses on Cape Cod, and because Habitat chapters contribute to a worldwide Habitat fund, the Cape has helped to build about 91 homes around the world.

Cape Cod’s Habitat for Humanity has a new project due to start in mid-November, said Helms. When it opens on White’s Path in South Yarmouth, just off Exit 8 on the Mid-Cape Highway, “ReStore” will join about 700 similar outlets around the United States. The ReStore will accept, according to Habitat publicity, “donations of new and gently used building and remodeling supplies, home furnishing and appliances that are sold to the public at a deep discount.” It will also, according to the organization, keep usable material out of landfills and raise funds for more Habitat homes.

On Cape, Helms said, Habitat builds about six houses each year and hopes to “ramp up” to eight to 10 of the affordable homes annually.

Another interest of Helms’ is what the National Association of Realtors calls its International Forum, in which U.S. Realtors – a trade name for a professional organization – interact with colleagues from other nations. Helms was elected in January as the vice president of the Cape Cod and Islands region of the Massachusetts Association.

She said that international interest in United States property is important to note. Statistics she provided sfrom the Realtor organization report that “$82 Billion worth of residential property was purchased by international buyers in the U.S. from March 2010-March 2011.”

As an illustration of the global nature of the real estate market, Helms asked, “Have you ever been to Covell’s Beach [in Centerville] in the summer? Have you ever noticed the number of people speaking Russian? They all own property.”

As for her own migration to Barnstable Village from the Boston neighborhood of Brighton, where she was raised, Helms said that she arrived in 1970, after college, with her husband, a high school history teacher. They sent two daughters to the Barnstable-West Barnstable Elementary School. Their son went to Sandwich schools after they bought a bed-and-breakfast there.

Now the Helmses have two grandchildren at BWB. One of the teachers recently sent home a picture from the parents’ generation for the family to enjoy. The two younger generations, as well as Helms and her husband, and her mother, all live in the Pine Lane residence, which they made into apartments after they closed the B-and-B operations both in Sandwich and in Barnstable Village.

For some years, Helms said, the house was operated as a boarding school by Episcopal nuns, at different time for girls and then for boys, until the 1950’s. “People still stop by who went to school there and want to see it again,” she said.

The Village is “a great walking place,” said Helms, who said she enjoys the easy access to the water at Millway Beach. She said that she has made many a costume for her children for the Fourth of July parade, including a celebration of the space shuttle when it was new.

Now, Helms said, “It’s fun to watch my children and their children do the same things we did” in Barnstable Village.